BBC Radio 4 Today: Summer 2013 Survey
A twelve-week survey examining whether BBC Radio 4’s Today programme adequately represented the increasingly mainstream debate about the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.
Document type
Monitoring Survey
November 2013
92 pages · PDF
David Keighley and Andrew Jubb
News-watch monitored all 72 editions of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme broadcast between 8 April and 29 June 2013. Every programme was logged in full, with all material concerning the European Union or Britain’s relationship with it transcribed and subjected to line-by-line analysis.
The survey coincided with growing electoral support for UKIP, Conservative proposals for an in/out referendum and renewed public debate about Britain’s membership of the EU. Today devoted eight hours and 58 minutes of feature airtime to EU affairs, generating more than 140,000 words of relevant transcripts.
The research asked whether this extensive coverage fulfilled the BBC’s earlier commitment to represent the case for withdrawal and explain the operation and influence of the European Union. It found that withdrawal was frequently present as a political backdrop but was almost entirely absent as a substantive argument.
Key findings
News-watch monitored all 72 editions of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme broadcast between 8 April and 29 June 2013. Every programme was logged in full, with all material concerning the European Union or Britain’s relationship with it transcribed and subjected to line-by-line analysis.
The survey coincided with growing electoral support for UKIP, Conservative proposals for an in/out referendum and renewed public debate about Britain’s membership of the EU. Today devoted eight hours and 58 minutes of feature airtime to EU affairs, generating more than 140,000 words of relevant transcripts.
The research asked whether this extensive coverage fulfilled the BBC’s earlier commitment to represent the case for withdrawal and explain the operation and influence of the European Union. It found that withdrawal was frequently present as a political backdrop but was almost entirely absent as a substantive argument.
1. Today carried nearly nine hours of EU coverage
EU-related features occupied exactly eight hours and 58 minutes, or 6.8 per cent of Today’s available feature airtime. The programme transmitted 277 EU-related items, including 163 feature reports, during the twelve-week survey.
2. The withdrawal case received only three minutes and 42 seconds
Six contributions from supporters of withdrawal contained a combined 513 words on the subject. These amounted to only 0.7 per cent of Today’s total EU airtime and 0.02 per cent of all feature output. None was long enough to explain the case for leaving the EU.
3. Presenters almost never asked supporters to explain their position
Across the entire survey, only one question was put to a supporter of withdrawal specifically about withdrawal—and its effect was to move the interview onto other policy matters. On every other occasion, the subject was raised by the contributor rather than the presenter.
4. Significant potential contributors were overlooked
Lord Lawson’s public call for Britain to leave the EU on 7 May was not followed by an interview with him or another supporter of his position. John Mills, a Labour donor, was the only Labour-aligned contributor to express a critical view of the EU, continuing the longstanding exclusion of left-wing withdrawal arguments.
5. Euroscepticism was framed principally through Conservative division
The dominant editorial treatment focused on conflict within the Conservative Party rather than examining the arguments about membership themselves. Meanwhile, claims supporting continued membership—including the disputed assertion that 3.5 million jobs depended upon it—received substantial airtime without equivalent challenge.